City Council passes bill with controversial hiring practices

The Baltimore City Council unanimously voted Monday night to bring a controversial idea that would put hiring restrictions on companies doing business within the city one step closer to passage.

City Council President Jack Young's bill would make companies hire a certain percentage of city workers to fill their workforce if a company is awarded a city contract worth more than $300,000 or one where the city helps finance at least $5 million of the project.

Young's bill states that at least 51 percent of the new hires must live in the city or the company will face penalties.

"Any company that would challenge hiring six out of 10 workers from Baltimore City, I think that would show they're a company that doesn't care," Young said.

Some in the business community have already said that puts a heavy burden on them. City Solicitor George Nilson said the bill violates the U.S. Constitution.

"One state, or a city within that state, cannot discriminate in favor of its own residents against the citizens and residents of another state," Nilson said.

He said the city would have to prove non-city residents are the reason that city residents can't get jobs.

"Well, our law department should look at San Francisco," Young said.

He said that city passed similar hiring laws and said it will defend them; however, Young admitted the law has yet to be challenged in a California court.

Nilson said he thinks Baltimore would lose a challenge.

"Because every case that's been brought challenging bills just like this in many other cities across the country have resulted in those bills being unconstitutional. So, it's like the batting average is zero," he said.

The council president fired back.

"George should do everything he can to encourage local hiring in Baltimore, not discouraging it, and saying that it's indefensible. If he says it's indefensible, then that tells me that he's not a lawyer that's capable of winning cases," Young said.

The bill has case-by-case exemptions in place for good-faith hiring efforts and for companies that are located and perform their work out-of-state.

The mayor has yet to say if she would sign the bill in its current form.

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